EAST BAY / Sigh of relief from BART commuters / Riders had made back-up plans in case of strike

Kelly St. John, Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writers

Published
4:00 am PDT, Thursday, July 7, 2005

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Joann (cq) Jackson, of Antioch, is relieved to be heading to work at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco on her usual BART train. Her only plan of attack if BART wasn't operating was to somehow make it to West Oakland we she hoped she could catch a ride of a bus.
Morning commuters seem to riding BART trains as usual the morning after BART works threatened to strike if contract negotiations did not happen. At 3 a.m. Wednesday negotiations came together. 7/5/05 Mike Kepka / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

bart026_mk.jpg
Joann (cq) Jackson, of Antioch, is relieved to be heading to work at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco on her usual BART train. Her only plan of attack if BART wasn't operating was to somehow ... more

Photo: Mike Kepka

Photo: Mike Kepka

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bart026_mk.jpg
Joann (cq) Jackson, of Antioch, is relieved to be heading to work at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco on her usual BART train. Her only plan of attack if BART wasn't operating was to somehow make it to West Oakland we she hoped she could catch a ride of a bus.
Morning commuters seem to riding BART trains as usual the morning after BART works threatened to strike if contract negotiations did not happen. At 3 a.m. Wednesday negotiations came together. 7/5/05 Mike Kepka / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

bart026_mk.jpg
Joann (cq) Jackson, of Antioch, is relieved to be heading to work at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco on her usual BART train. Her only plan of attack if BART wasn't operating was to somehow ... more

Photo: Mike Kepka

EAST BAY / Sigh of relief from BART commuters / Riders had made back-up plans in case of strike

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Wednesday morning's commute was just about like any other day in the Bay Area -- providing a last-minute happy ending for thousands of people who had spent the past week preparing for a nightmare.

A last-minute contract deal between BART management and unions representing 2,300 workers came about an hour before the first trains rolled out of the yards, and most people dropped their alternative transit plans and went to work the same ways they normally do, officials said.

"Thank God I could take BART," said April Paraiso, a 22-year-old college student from Vallejo. Paraiso had planned to carpool to her database job in downtown Oakland, but when she drove to the casual carpool pick-up spot, she learned the BART strike had been called off. "It was just so stressful."

There were plenty of smiling faces at BART stations around the region.

"We've been getting a lot of 'thank-yous,' " said Richard Stingily, a BART supervisor at Oakland's 12th Street Station. "We're happy to be here."

Nearby, Sammy Chung -- who runs a flower shop called the "Lovely Bloom" which caters to BART riders -- was cheerfully setting up bouquets of lilies and roses for sale.

"Of course, I'm very happy," said Chung, who estimates she would have lost between $200 and $300 each day of a strike.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson announced the agreement just before 3 a.m., ending more than four days of round-the-clock negotiations. But not everyone got the news right away, and Johnson said BART ridership was down about 10 percent Wednesday morning.

Traffic on the Bay Bridge seemed heavier than normal during the early morning commute. But that was more the result of a 4:30 a.m. accident that blocked three lanes of traffic for 30 minutes than it was an influx of BART riders on the road, said Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss. In the end, 300 fewer cars passed through the toll plaza Wednesday morning than had the day before.

Some commuters, like Julia Johnson of San Leandro, ditched BART and the freeway Wednesday. She took an AC Transit bus to the Financial District and found the trip was cheaper and more scenic, even if it took five minutes longer than BART.

"I believe I've found a better way to commute," Johnson said.

As in the six-day strike in 1997, BART did not plan to run trains during a strike. In 1997, morning backups at the Bay Bridge started an hour early and ended 30 minutes later than normal.

"I went through the last one. I remember how bad it was," said Sheri Reese, 33, an insurance broker in San Francisco's financial district.

Reese planned to take a casual carpool from Hercules, but did not know how long it would take. "I was anxious about it so I got up first thing (to watch the news). I was very, very relieved."

Still, like some commuters, Reese said she is still frustrated that a labor dispute could threaten such widespread disruption.

"It almost seems like they shouldn't be about to strike when it comes to public transportation and affecting so many people," said Reese. "It makes a lot of people upset with the system."

"I'm just glad it is over with," said Joann Jackson, who had planned to drive from her home in Antioch to Oakland and catch an AC Transit bus to her accounting job in San Francisco. "Regardless if (BART workers) struck or not, they would have gotten what they wanted."

Others admitted they had mixed feelings when the BART strike was called off.

"I was going to work from home," said Dylan Ryder-Loomis, a 30-year-old information security consultant. Then he logged onto his computer at home in Berkeley and saw the strike had been averted. "I thought, 'I guess I'll be going in to work after all.' "

Terry Emerson, a Pittsburg resident who works as a records clerk in Oakland, said she had taken Wednesday off from work because her carpool was canceled in anticipation of heavy traffic.

"I was going to work in the garden," she laughed. Instead, she boarded a bus and rode BART to the office. "BART is a lifeline, especially from Contra Costa County. If you are someone like me, without a car, it's almost impossible to get anywhere without it."